The ice machine outside our door groaned all night like an old refrigerator, and by Saturday morning I had decided I liked it. It meant we were close enough to the stairs, close enough to the beach walkway, and on the second floor of a motel that has probably been standing since before I was born.
This was our second trip under the new rules Wes and I made in January: one cheap trip a month, paid only out of the trip account, aim for under $300. Myrtle Beach is about an hour and forty minutes from our house near Maxton, which makes it the easiest beach weekend we have. The trick in April is going before the summer rates show up.
How I picked the motel
Last July we spent a week in one of the big high-rises on the Grand Strand, and I could not tell you one thing about the room except that the elevator took forever. So this time I went the other way. I looked for an older, family-style oceanfront motel on the south end, away from the busiest stretch, and I made myself a short list of what mattered.
My must-haves were short. Oceanfront or one row back, so we could walk to the sand without crossing a highway. Reviews from the last two or three months, not from two years ago. Free parking right at the building, because some places charge a nightly parking fee that never shows up in the first price you see. A small fridge and microwave, since the cooler was coming either way. And a total price with tax that I could see before I paid anything.
I found a place for $79 a night in mid-April. The same room in July was listed at more than double. I called to ask whether the room faced the ocean or the parking lot, and the lady on the phone said, "Honey, for $79 you get a side view," which I appreciated for its honesty.
Two double beds with clean white sheets, a window unit that worked fine, a bathroom with tile that had seen some decades, and a balcony where if you leaned a little to the left you could see the water. The carpet was newer than the furniture. The fridge hummed, the microwave worked, and the towels were thin but plentiful. Wes checked the door lock and the window latch before he set his bag down, which is just what he does.
Nobody would put it in a magazine. But we were not there to sit in the room. We walked the beach both mornings before eight, when it was cool and nearly empty except for the fishermen and a few people with metal detectors. Friday evening we drove down to Surfside and back. Saturday we sat on the sand with a thermos of coffee and a bag of boiled peanuts and watched the pelicans line up like they were waiting for a bus.
The taxes nobody mentions up front
Here is the part I want people to know. The rate was $79, but the room did not cost $79. South Carolina has state sales tax and accommodations tax on lodging, and local governments along the coast add their own on top. When I added it all up from the receipt, two nights at $79 came to $158 before tax and $178 after. That is about $10 a night in taxes, which is not a scandal, but it is the difference between a trip under budget and a trip over it if you never plan for it.
I work at a front desk where I spend half my day reading insurance codes, so I read receipts the same way. There was no resort fee and no parking fee, and the lady had been right about the side view.
What we spent
We packed the cooler with sandwich makings, fruit, a dozen boiled eggs and a jug of sweet tea. We ate one supper out on Saturday, fried shrimp and flounder plates at a small seafood place inland from the beach. Gas was cheap that weekend at about $2.87 a gallon.
- Motel, 2 nights at $79: $158
- Taxes on the room: $20
- Gas, about 7.3 gallons at $2.87: $21
- Seafood supper with tip: $31
- Boiled peanuts and a bag of ice (the rest of the cooler came out of our own kitchen): $6
- Total: $236
That is $64 under our $300 target, with two mornings on the beach and a balcony view if you lean. June stayed with Tonya in Pembroke, and Wes brought Mr. Earl back a jar of local honey from a roadside stand on the way home.
The lesson for me was simple. The older motels on the south end are not fancy, but in April they are cheap, quiet and right on the sand. I would rather spend $79 and walk out onto the beach than spend $300 and wait on an elevator.
